November 2008

November 27, 2008

On this day it seems most appropriate to express gratitude and thankfulness for blessings in our lives both large and small. As for me, I am thankful for:

1. God's saving grace

2. family and friends who have been there for us through Terri's scary ordeal. We certainly learned who our true friends were! You know who you are!

3. Business partners and leaders across the continent

4. freedom

5. opportunity

6. all those who will stand up against bullies and fight for what is right

7. good books

8. blue skies

9. fluffly snow

10. smiles and hugs

11. health

12. the chance to write

13. humor and laughs

14. vanilla shakes

15. popcorn

16. horsepower

17. speed

18. honest people

19. soccer

20. cheesburgers

21. all things eternal!

What a mixed list! But blessings are like that. Life is like that. We can see wonder and grace in all sorts of places! May you never lose your sense of wonder and appreciation for God's gift of life to you! What are you thankful for on this day?

November 23, 2008

Gaius Octavius was born in 63 B.C.. Nephew to acting dictator of Rome, Julius Caesar, Gaius was (unbeknownst to anyone until after Caesar's death) named Caesar's adopted son and heir. Only eighteen years old at the time, he was instantly a wealthy man, and had the additional clout of his adopted father's name. In ancient Rome, however, this was not enough. The country was not yet run as a dynastic empire, and birth was no guarantee of ascent to power. Competing factions in the senate and former advisors and consuls to Rome jockeyed for position. Nobody gave the young teenager much credit, and few would have predicted his determined rise to power. Eventually, Gaius Octavious, later known as Cae sar Augustus (for which the month of August is named), became Rome's first and longest ruling emporer. His efforts effectively killed the last remnants of Republican Rome and ushered in the approximately five-hundred year Age of Empire. The story of his patient, brilliant, and ruthless rise to his position as the most powerful man in the world is gripping and as racey as a soap opera. Leadership lessons abound in his long and storied career.

One prominant feature of Augustus's life is his incredible ability to hold the long-term view of things. While others sought short term fixes, Octavius was patient enough to manuever for long-term solutions. Opposed by powerful and ruthless men (and treacherous women working behind the scenes), Augustus was able to take one step at a time, carefully and deliberately, until he was literally the last man standing in the quest for power.

Perhaps the biggest thing a leader can learn from the life of one of the world's most successful leaders is Augustus's ability to compound the effects of his actions over a long period of time. Augustus had the rare ability to pile one forward move on top of another, and spent very little time doing what most average men do in wasting their lives re-doing the same things over and over again. Augustus rarely squandered a resource or opportunity, and used every advance as a stepping off point for another one. Most people do not operate this way. Power-thirst and ruthlessness aside, Augustus is a great example for efficient use of our time and resources as leader.

Our money, our time, our relationships, our connections, our reputation, our name, our education, and our abilities are all assets that can help us advance througout our lives. Sadly, however, many waste and squander much of this "capital" along the way. We blow our money, sabatoge our relationships, deconstruct our credibility, tarnish our name, refuse to continue or utilize our educations, and fail to manage and cultivate our connections. In so doing we find ourselve having to cover the same ground again and again. We have to earn money to replace that which we spent so unwisely. We seek new relationships because we haven't been able to sustain or grow the old ones. We make new connections because people have stopped trusting us. We are forced to learn the same lessons over and over again. This is like an army that charges up a hill and successfully pushes the enemy off, only to endure a self-inflicted retreat back down to charge that same hill once again! As Orrin Woodward says, "Some people who have been doing something for thirty years with little to show for it cannot claim they have thirty years experience. They have one year's experience thirty times!"

The best leaders leverage all that they have to get everything they want. This requires a long term view, a respect for the assets in their possession, and an ability not to sabatoge their own progress. Life is too short to learn the same lessons over and over again, or to re-do what has previously been done. Consistency is also key. Effort upon effort, consistently applied over time, produces tremendous compound results. Conversely, inconsistency is one of life's supreme inefficiencies.

In the end, success is largely a matter of hanging on after others have been shaken off. It is also the accumulation of consistent effort over time. The best leaders build an edifice out of their lives, taking steps each day to add to previous accomplishments. The rest struggle in futile repeats. We only get one life. The choice is ours.

November 19, 2008

Air travel is still one of the most effective ways to waste one's time when you are trying to get somewhere efficiently.

The first thing that is required is to save a lot of time by shopping for airline tickets on the Internet. By the time you do your airfare searches, type in all the details, select your seats, find out that the tickets are no longer available, then start the process over, only to find that the search website has timed out because you took too long to make your choice, then start the process all over again, confirm your purchase, and print your itinerary, having ample time between each of these activities to watch your computer's hourglass spinning away for long stretches at a time, you have used up exactly four times as much time as it used to take to call a travel agent.

The next thing is the drive to the airport. Just be sure and leave a day or two in advance of your flight. This is because of traffic due to incessant road construction and the fact that police like to set up speed traps in and around airports because they know that most people are in a rush because they didn't leave the day before and now are about to miss their flight.

Next comes parking. There are several ways to do this. First, you can park in one of those economy lots conveniently located in a neighboring state. After standing around for an hour or so, they will pick you up in a luxurious broken-down van stuffed with other travelers who are impatient and in a hurry because they didn't leave for the airport the day before like they should have. They will stare at you and barely make room for you as they look at you with their stern looks as if to say "hurry up, for crying out loud!" Somehow, the efficienty of these economy parking lot shuttles is computer controlled to make sure you are the last passenger to be dropped off. Another parking option is "long term" parking. This means that the lot is more expensive than the economy lot, and is much closer to the airport, by say, at least fifty feet. "Short Term" parking means you will only be able to afford it for a few minutes. Trying to actually leave you car in this lot for more than a few minutes might cost you a first-born child. Conveniently, though, this lot is located only about a few thousand yards away from the airport.

Now you get to check in your luggage. You can either go inside and wait in a line as long as the Mason-Dixon line, or you can use the convenient sky caps at the curbside, where all you have to do is wait in a line as long as the Mason-Dixon line. You will then get to use the fast and convenient touch screens which accomplish the amazing feat of making it unnecessary for you to deal with a ticket agent any more. You see, in the olden days of airline travel, you would approach the counter, hand them your ticket, then your luggage, and they would check you in. In our modern world full of technological conveniences, now the process simply involves you using the touch screen, selecting all the relevant information, printing out your boarding pass, and then handing it to a ticket agent who then takes your luggage and checks you in. It's so much better the new way.

Next comes security. This is where even men wish they had left their wire bras at home. Belts, jackets, coins, jewelry, knives, guns, and garden equipment must all pass through a little conveyor-belt driven MRI machine. While your carry-on baggage is thouroughly checked for dangerous, life-threatening items such as hair gel and tweasers, you get to walk through a small archway and hand your boarding pass to the third person to see it so far. It is at this point that the security official (and there is apparently a federal law that there must be as many security officials working the area as there are people in line) will randomly determine if you should get "wanded" or not. Unless you are a small child or an old lady, the most common type of terrorists, apparently, you probably won't have to worry about this one. At the other side of security are large areas where people are getting themselves dressed again, and, of course, hurrying because they are late because they didn't leave for the airport the day before.

Now you get to find your gate and wait. For your comfort, most airports have installed as many as four chairs for all the passengers on your flight to sit in, and some of the finest airports have televisions blaring negative news on full blast.

Finally, the gate agent will use the P.A. (which stands for "probably awful") system, which will be extremely loud and annoying for every flight except yours, and when it involves your own gate, you will barely be able to hear it. You will be called to board the airplane where, you guessed it, you get to show your mighty boarding pass again!

Once aboard the airplane, you will find that you have to wedge yourself in next to the biggest human being you have ever seen. This person will always be seated next to you. It's just kind of a rule. Also, the person with the worst hygiene will also be seated very nearby. Carry-on baggage will also be a challenge, as four hundred people will have already filled the overhead bins before you got there. Apparently they came to the airport the day before and accomplished this task. The flight attendant will then look at you disapprovingly as if to say, "You idiot! What did you bring that thing on board for?"

Finally, if all goes well and there are no delays, lineups at the runway, or inclement weather, your flight will take off smoothly, delivering you to your destination in the world's most advanced, efficient fashion. You will arrive almost exactly at the same time you would have had you driven. Well, mostly. Sometimes driving is faster.

November 18, 2008

The older I become the more I learn, and that's a good thing. However, some things I learn I really didn't want to learn. I believe its instructional that the fall of the human race occured with the eating of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As it is quoted, "with much wisdom comes much sorrow."

But then, I overstate things a bit. Perhaps the best way to explain the concept is to relate the illustration of a tractor pull. Somewhere, way back in my teenage years I attended a county fair. At that fair they featured a tractor pull. The process was fascinating. Grease-monkey gear-heads from all around turned out to display their souped-up horsepower firewagons, and pit them against each other in the tractor pull competition. If you've never seen one yourself, here's how it works: a tractor starts out pulling a heavy drag sled across dirt or gravel. As the sled slides forward, a blade gradually digs deeper and deeper into the ground, thereby increasingly increasing the resistance that must be overcome by the tractor. Eventually, the resistance becomes too much for even the most capable tractor, and the progress is marked in the dirt for all the other competitors to surpass.

I know you've already seen where I'm going with this. When I study history, as is one of my passions, I can almost see each stand-out leader as a tractor pulling against the sled, struggling against opposing forces with all his might. At the end of the leader's life historians mark his spot of forward progress and assess and compare his performance. Not a very inspiring sight, but accurate to a degree, I'm sure. As one ascends the ladder of success, rising higher and higher, responsibility also increases, sometimes even disproportionally (a drag sled out of control). As I've often said, "Leaders often carry an unfair load." Unfair to an average performer, perhaps, but not so the leader. That is because the bright side of the increase of resistance and responsibility is an increase in influence and results. Significance and fulfillment also increase exponentially.

This is where my illustration breaks down a bit. There is no way a tractor struggling along, belching out smoke, straining harder and harder in a futile battle can be a totally accurate picture of leadership because it doesn't illustrate the increasing rewards gained by the leader for his or her efforts. Further, and perhaps most importantly, the leader has the capability to do something along the way that the tractor cannot do: increase their horsepower! While a tractor in a pull shows up for the competition with all it's got and can gain no more, a leader can always grow in the process!

A leader can read, learn from experience, mentor with someone, and grow stronger because of the struggle. This surprising and almost intimidating fact is extremely inspirational. Truly, there is no defeating a leader who is committed. No matter what happens, what failure, setbacks, or obstacles confront them, they continue to morph into something bigger, better, and stronger than they were before. To be certain, this type of development is only accomplished by the rarest type of person. But then again, leadership at that level is uncommon, commitment of that magnitude is unusual. It's available to everyone, but exhibited by only a few. This is why leaders are such interesting people and why their stories are so popular. There is something in the human spirit that loves achievement, overcoming of obstacles, and beating the long odds.

Every time a leader overcomes challenges and rises to fight again she is stepping closer to fulfilling her destiny and maximizing her potential. The key is to improve and grow faster than the resistance increases. If not, the leader's progress peaks right at that level. The track officials might as well mark it in the sand because the pull is over.

So each of us should make sure we are doing everything we can to grow in and through the process of struggling upward toward our destinies. Remember, we can't take our same old self into a bright new future, if we did, we would simply darken it! Instead, we need to be made better and stronger through the resistance so that we can handle the higher level as well as the rewards. Why? Because we are tractors, and tractors were built to pull.

November 07, 2008

They rise up out of the sand and butcher someone in the name of some crazy god. Religious zealotry is explained by its adherents as loyalty and faith and duty. Anyone believing anything else is proclaimed an "infidel." It is an old story, one that grinds us down and defies explanation, demonstrating "man's inhumanity to man" in the name of religion. History offers us so many examples of this throughout its pages that we take it for granted that this travesty, as everything else, also had a beginning.

The first "holy war" was invented by King Darius, the despot of the Persian empire who gained his throne through regicide. A ruthless murderer, Darius held the enormous collection of subject peoples within his vast empire in check by force and violence. Although a departure from the strategic clemency shown by the earlier Persian ruler Cyrus the Great, Darius's methodology was certainly nothing new. Force and violence were, even at that early date, ancient tactics for subjugation. What was new was something Darius concocted in 520 BC when the Elamites revolted against his rule. No one knows what inspired him, but Darius was recorded to utter, "Those Elamites were faithless, they failed to worship Ahura Mazda." Using this as a reason for conquest, Darius put down their rebellion in the normal butcherous fashion. His innovation, however, would live on throughout time and become the bane of much of world history. The features of his creation involved the concept that foes could be put down in the name of a religion (the fact that they had never practiced, or in some cases even heard of the religion made no difference), that warriors might be promised rewards in paradise for faithful acts of violence, and that conquest in the name of god (as proclaimed by the despot) was indeed a moral duty.

Darius may or may not have realized what he created. His new device, however, would catch on quickly and find its way into the arsenal of many of history's most haneous dictators, and eventually into entire movements between civilizations (the Crusades spring most readily to mind). In many cases today, entire religious sects claim the weapon as their own, the tool outreaching any lone despot.

Today, the so-called "war on terror" is actually a determination to combat groups who adhere to Darius's device. The challenge is that the adherents of this 2500 year old custom are varied and fanatical. How is one to discern who is a "radical" and who is a "peaceful nominal adherent?" What do we make of those "peaceful" worshipers who, nonetheless, dance in the streets when the radicals make a newsworthy strike (understanding that not everyone does this, of course)?

These are important questions, and particularly relevant at this time because we have just elected new leadership to our country. One thing is a clear fact: the United States has not had terrorist strikes on its soil since the strong response to September 11th. As one military friend of mine said, "Done correctly, it's better to take the fight to them then to allow them to bring the fight to us." What will be the policy of the West moving forward, as it seeks to combat an enemy that presents itself as little more than "smoke to be grasped," or, in the words of Ronald Reagan, "curd jelly [to be nailed to a wall]?"

Terrorism is unjustified no matter what perceived slights, mistreatment, western arrogance, national hubris, or journalist-declared poverty are given as explanation. Evil in the name of any religion is still evil. Do we treat with the murderers of children? Do we try to behave like kowtowers so that they might like us more? Should we honor them as victims and thereby justify their atrocities, all in the name of "understanding them" and appeasement (visions of Jimmy Carter tromping around with Fidel Castro at a Cuban baseball game come to mind)? Or do we meet strength with strength? Do we strike preemptively to nip the problem at its source? And in so doing, how do we avoid prolonged occupations and casualties of war?

These are somber questions, and must be addressed by America and her leadership. In this hour of change in our nation, may we have our eyes open to the reality of evil in the form of fanaticism, and remember the words of Will Durant, "Love peace, but keep our powder dry."

November 06, 2008

Being a student of history has its advantages and disadvantages. In a way, when things happen in current event that mirror events of the past, the student of history sees patterns and repetitions that he feels should be obvious to others. This pattern of repeating history can lead to either pessimism or optimism.

For instance, in this recent election, conservative principles were not really defeated, they weren't even represented. If the conservative principles espoused by the majority of the American population had been represented by the candidates in the Republican party, it is possible that the election could have gone differently. But a president so quick to spend massive amounts of money on "finishing his daddy's war" in Iraq and on insane "bailouts" following national disasters and government-spawned financial problems may call himself anything he wants, but in truth he governed as a big-government Democrat. If the world thought his was an example of "conservativism," no wonder they became disheartened with it! An analysis such as this can certainly lead to pessimism, realizing that when a candidate campaigns from one position and governs from another he weakens his whole party.

On the contrary, history is replete with examples of dangerous cycles followed by revival. For instance, when I was born the United States was embroiled in a messy "police operation" in Viet Nam and the civil rights movement was in full swing with riots in the streets. This was followed by the OPEC oil embargo, then Watergate. Quickly on the heels of these good times came Jimmy Carter and the Iran hostage crisis. All in all, this was a pretty bleak stretch in American history. However, Ronald Reagan arrived with a real set of principles that gained national acclaim and he was elected by a massive landslide victory. He then proceeded to govern upon the same principles upon which he campaigned, successfully exposing Communism as the fraud it is and reigniting a doomed American economy. The Reagan Revolution effectively rolled the wheel back, reinstituting the principles of freedom and setting the United States on course for more prosperous years. There is certainly a lot more to the story, and much more analysis to be understood, but effectively a tide of shame and failure in United States governance (brought about by BOTH parties, by the way) had been stemmed and reversed.

So, pessimism or optimism? What do times such as ours call for?

I would posit that we need a dose of each. Allow me to recommend that you read an article posted by my co-author and business partner Orrin Woodward(click here to see the article). In this post, Orrin comments upon one of the most fascinating pieces of political commentary I have ever read: Alexander Tyler's Cycle of Democracy. To me, Orrin's comments are spot on. We can gain a better perspective by understanding history and being wise to the fact that any nation that loses its principles will soon lose its freedom. There are no guarantees. But we can also take stock in the fact that God is sovereign, and throughout the course of history He has raised people up to shape events. And always, these people who do so much for the cause of freedom in the lives of others must battle fiercely for it. This is because freedom isn't free. It requires "eternal vigilance." It is a sacred flame that warms many, but is not beyond being snuffed out. My hope is that I can do my part to protect that flame, so that future generations may live under the benefit of its warmth, as I have.